The Weaver, the Word and Wisdom

Okay - before you stop buying things for Lent 08, how about splashing out on a new book? My latest has just been released. 'The Weaver, the Word and Wisdom' is a collection of prayers, reflections, poems and resources for use in public worship or private reflection.
£12.99 from www.mph.org.uk

Getting ready.... for Lent!!

Lent 08 starts really early, in fact on February 6th. So amidst the Christmas carols, tinsel and parties some of us at Methodist Church House are getting ready for Lent! One season of preparation and penitence clearly isn't enough!

The Methodist Church was so impressed the No New Shoes campaign last Lent that we are following it up with a campaign called 'Buy Less : Live More'.

During Lent people who sign up will receive a daily email with 2 challenges/ideas one about buying less and one about 'living more'. So as well as reducing your carbon footprint by getting off the consumer treadmill, you can live life in all its fullness.

We are producing Buy Less: Live More 'credit cards', which you can put in your wallet to remind you to think twice before shopping. These will be available from www.mph.org.uk free (plus postage) in the New Year. We will have some pages on the Methodist Church Website and a Facebook site, where you can sign up for email updates - and we'll keep posting on No New Shoes. Watch this space for more details.

Bags of Fun

Okay, I don't always remember to take non-plastic bags with me to the supermarket, but mostly I do. Or I take the old plastic bags from the cupboard under the stairs (or the European used plastic bag mountain as it is also known), so they get used a few times before their 400 year wait until nature finally wins.

'Bag for Life' offers at our supermarche are a good idea - but much, much, much better is to use fairly traded jute bags, available from Traidcraft, New Internationlist and other such wonderful places.

I support the campaign to emulate Ireland and begin charging for plaggy bags - we'll soon start to remember to take our trendy fair trade environmentally friendly bags with us. And anyway - your wine bottle's much less likely to fall out of a sturdy jute bag than a thin, poorly made, environmentally disastrous carrier.

visit www.green-england.co.uk/plasticbagpetition to add your name to those who support 'old bags' (you know what I mean) or visit www.mrdf.org.uk for more ideas about tackling climate change.

Tremendous Truro

I had a great time at Truro Methodist Church over the weekend of 16th - 17th June.

they had a flower festival and concerts, craft fair etc.

They have a great choir, praise band, African drum band and a fabulous director of music.

Most importantly though was the sense of people gathering to worship God with joy, love, care and enthusiasm.

Wonderful and uplifting.

Blogging blues

I think blogging is a great idea - there are just a few draw backs.

One is that my life is too full to find enough time telling the world what I'm up to or what I think about all sorts of things.

BUT the blogging thing that really gets my goat is how rude people feel they can be about other people. I'm lucky - I don't get people saying rude things on my little blogs. But I read other blogs where people are mean and disrespectful about other people and other people's ideas, work, looks - you name it.

So I'm pledging to try and be nice on this blog - does that mean no one will read it? Maybe.

But as wiser people have said - if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

What do you think? (Be nice - but disagree if you like!!)

HAPPY EASTER!

A PRAYER
When everything was dark
and it seemed that the sun would never shine again,
your love broke through.
Your love was too strong, too wide, too deep for death to hold.
The sparks cast by your love dance and spread
and burst forth with resurrection light.

Gracious God, we praise you for the light of new life
made possible through Jesus.
We praise you for the light of new life
that shone on the first witnesses of resurrection.
We praise you for the light of new life
that continues in our hearts today.
We pray that the Easter light of life, hope and joy
will live in us each day;
and that we will be bearers of that light into the lives of others. Amen.

School Concerts

It seems two minutes since I was happy that Half Term was here and now it's time for the Easter break. Yippee! Hurray! Thank goodness.

This week's not been too bad though - work's been a bit rough but the extra curricular things have made it bearable. Both my children had school concerts to appear in. My daughter was a georgeous ladybird in a comical version of Little Red Riding Hood and was word perfect and had a very red face. My son was in the choir and the samba band in his school concert and both were wonderful.

What was great was the amount of work put in by the young people and the teachers. As well as huge quanitities of natural talent there was enthusiasm, commitment, team work and a lot of fun. At a time when young people get a slamming in the press and certain newspapers would have us think that no teacher ever does anything beyond the call of duty, it is great to remember the thousands of kids and staff in schools making an effort and having a great time.

It gives me hope!

Art and Faith

Earlier this week I had a wonderful day at the Tate Modern with some good friends. Some of the stuff is weird, a small amount is obscene but some of it is truly wonderful. No matter how many times I have seen one of Monet's 'Waterlilies' in books, there is nothing like seeing the real thing. There is a wonderful electricity that seems generated by a truly great work of art - it is as though the artist has left something of their very soul in their work. Being able to see the texture of each brush stroke is such a privilege.

For me visits to art galleries are spiritual experiences - they enhance my faith because I am confronted with artist's questions or perspectives on the world and human existence. For me this leads inevitably to the big questions about God and creation and the relationship between artist and their creation. Even art that has no aspiration to be 'religious' can have a profound effect on me. Is it okay to read matters of faith in the work of someone who would not ascribe to the existence of God?

On the whole I think there are two kinds of art - good and bad. The faith/worldview of the artist is not as important as their skill, imagination and ability to translate an idea into reality.

What do you think.

Not having a good day

Today was not a good day.

A situation arose at work that left me really cross and frustrated and no amount of trying to focus on other stuff made me feel any better. I struggle with how to handle these sort of situations because, as a Christian I feel guilty about being cross with someone else and I often end up keeping my anger (even justifiable anger) inside. I also know that there is a spiritual (and psychological) cost in keeping a lid on things but I worry that I'll seem unprofessional, or stroppy, if I let negative feelings out.

How do other people deal with feelings that feel overwhelming, or get in the way? And is 'niceness' a face we hide behind that stops us changing the world into the place God longs for it to be?

I'm probably just making a fuss.... - is it a Christian thing, or a gender thing... or maybe it's just me????

What do you think (and no I'm not telling what happened because that really would be unprofessional!!)

At last, Half Term!

It can't only be a few weeks since the Christmas holidays - it feels like months. In our house we are ready for the break - a few lie-ins, a chance to pay the garden some attention and lots of opportunities to have fun.

There's a lot to do in the house and the plan for keeping the children entertained sounds like a military exercise, the 'to-do' list is up to 12 items - suddenly this doesn't feel quite so relaxing and spacious, more a different kind of labour. Is it possible to find space in the complex arena of modern family life? Is it possible to make space for each other and to stop and smell the breeze?

The flowering cherry tree at the back of the garden is breaking into flower, the sun is out, birds are singing. Perhaps the space is found in the moment, the spontaneous, rather than in the planned and filled hours.

What helps you take a moment?

Looking Back

Technology is a marvellous thing. Over the years my family has taken many thousands of photographs and at present they take up a ridiculous amount of space in our spare room. We've gone on to digital now, so we take even more piccies we just forget to look at them!

Anyhow, in an effort to make room to store other forms of tat, we are in the process of scanning all our old photos to disk - a mammoth task. But it's not the chore we thought it was going to be, because every few pages in an album produces a squeal or giggle or 'awww' (you know that slightly yukky noise parents make when looking at old pictures of their kids). It is special going back over old photo's - partly nostalgic, but also because they are of happy occasions. I've found it really cathartic, but also a challenge to keep making the most of every day.

In looking at the joy on my son's face when he was about 3 sticking old cardboard boxes together to make a dragon, or my daughter's delight at first flying a kite - I remember that simple pleasures and an excitement about the everyday little things are the things that make life special.

Back to the scanning - oh, here's one of me before my hair began to go grey - hmm, moving swiftly on....

Drifting with the snow

Today I had lots of plans. Despite having heard the weather forecast for the last 3 days tell me it was going to snow heavily I didn't change them - mistake! My daughter's school is shut, my son is on a skiing holiday and has less snow in Austria than in my back garden and my husband has trudged the three miles to work looking like a yeti.

Should I complain? Not really. I've rearranged all my appointments for another day, eaten hot buttered toast, drank a huge mug of hot chocolate (fairly traded organic of course) and am still snuggled up in my fleecy robe. Not only this but I have spent a good deal of time watching the snow on the jasmin bush outside my window as it builds, builds, builds and then falls off in great sloppy dollops. Suddenly the plans are not so important. What is really crucial is the snow ball fight I plan to have with my daughter, the hours watching my garden transform into a glorious landscape of brilliant soft snow and the feeling of getting warm and dry after bulding 'Melinda the Snow Girl' (a promise made in a moment of weakness).

This is transcendance, this is a glimpse of the glory of God, this is a chance to say, 'stuff all those things I meant to do - today I connect with something more elemental today I will have fun!!'

I hope if you are in a snowy place today that you are safe and warm and that you have some fun.